Today there are many forms of communications available to consumers. For example, consumers can call parties over landline or cellular telephony services. Consumers can also send each other text and/or multimedia messages over a Short Messaging Service (SMS, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), faxes, mail and instant messaging (IM) service. When utilizing telephony services, it is common for calling parties to leave a voicemail message when the called party does not respond. Like SMS, MMS, faxes, and mail, voicemail messages are a form of non-real time communications. This form of communications can be useful when the calling party does not need an immediate response from the called party.
A disadvantage of non-real time communications is that the calling party may no longer be accessible by way of the same form of communications used by said party. For example, when the called party retrieves a voicemail message at a much later time than when it was entered (e.g., hours or next day) the callback number left by the calling party or caller ID of the communication device used by the calling party may no longer be useful to contact the calling party.
A situation may arise when for instance the calling party leaves the voicemail message using a friend's phone with a callback number corresponding to the calling party's cell phone. After several hours, the calling party is now located at his/her home with the cell phone turned off and accepting calls only through a home phone. Selecting the option to respond to the call via caller ID (friend's home) or the callback number left by the calling party (calling party's cell phone) will not locate the calling party. Similarly, when the calling party sends an SMS, MMS, fax or mail message, said party may later be in transit or at home with the communication device originally used in the off state or left in another location such as the calling party's office.
Circumstances such as these can be a frustrating and an undesirable experience for the called party.